Laud be to God! even there my life must end.
It hath been prophesied to me many years
I should not die but in Jerusalem;
Which vainly I suppos'd the Holy Land.
But bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie;
In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.
The Abbot's Courtyard and the Entrance to the Jerusalem Chamber
THE ABBOT'S COURTYARD AND THE ENTRANCE
TO THE JERUSALEM CHAMBER
This little paved yard has borne its present name ever since the days of the Westminster abbots, for the buildings all round belonged to the Abbot's lodgings. Here, for instance, is the fine hall where the Abbot used to dine, and where the Westminster scholars still have their meals. We cannot see this in the picture, but immediately facing us is the entrance to the Jerusalem Chamber and Jericho parlour, the Abbot's guest-rooms. The old bedrooms above also formed part of the Abbot's house, and are now used by the Dean. The whole of this, including the Jericho parlour, the windows of which we can see below, was probably built, in the reign of King Henry VII., by Abbot Islip. The Jerusalem Chamber dates from an earlier period, the fourteenth century.
Many and diverse are the purposes for which the Abbot's withdrawing-room has been utilised since the dissolution of the monastery. More than one coffin has rested here before the interment; the most notable was that of Sir Isaac Newton, when the Chamber was thronged with distinguished men from all parts of Europe. The least reputable was the famous occasion when the painted, bedizened body of a notorious actress, whose charms were extolled by Horace Walpole and sneered at by Alexander Pope, was brought into these monastic precincts, and afterwards buried inside the church itself. Wedding as well as funeral parties assemble in this room from time to time, and the Chamber is occasionally lent by the Dean for special meetings. Thus the revisers of the Old Testament carried out their onerous task, the work of several years, seated round this table. Long before, in the seventeenth century, a very different body of men had met here, when the Westminster Assembly, driven from Henry VII.'s Chapel by the freezing cold, moved into the warmer atmosphere of the Dean's house, and held many a stormy debate in this peaceful old-world place.
From Jerusalem we pass into the Jericho parlour; this room, and the bedrooms above it, were built in the sixteenth century, probably by Abbot Islip, who was like Litlington a great builder; the fine linen scroll panelling round the walls dates from an earlier period, and in the window hang more remains of ancient glass. A door leads from the Deanery into the lobby outside, and at the end of a dark passage is the Dean's private entrance to the Abbey, which opens into the nave beneath the "Abbot's Pew." We have referred once or twice to the Commonwealth era, when Presbyterian ministers preached in the church, and the Deanery was leased for a while to the Lord President of the Council, John Bradshaw. We seem even now, after the lapse of over two hundred years, to see the striking figure of the regicide, his stern features concealed by his favourite broad-brimmed hat, stride across the darkness to the little door in the wall, whence he ascended to the secluded study in the triforium, where he loved to meditate amongst his books. But enough of these fascinating memories. Our own pilgrimage is drawing to a close; we retrace our steps through the Abbot's courtyard and emerge from the twilight of the cloisters into the sunshine of Dean's Yard, turning for a moment before we part to look up at the window of the "long room," which, with his private chapel behind it, was built by our friend Litlington. On each side of the gateway below it are the heads of the Abbot himself and of his sovereign, Richard II. Part of the ancient refectory wall is concealed behind bookcases in the Abbot's long room, and there are other remains of monastic times in the Deanery, which is a rambling old house, added to by successive Deans, with many a picturesque corner and secret chamber. Let us take leave of one another standing under the old elm-trees, some of which were planted in Elizabeth's reign by Feckenham, the last Abbot, and here complete our morning's walk round the church and precincts of St. Peter's, Westminster.
Index
Abbot, 6, 12, 26, 27, 122, 125, 135
Abbot's courtyard, 135, 140
long room, 140
Pew, 22, 40, 139
Abbots' Chapel, 107
tombs, 135
Abbotsford, 48
Abraham, heights of, 108
Adams, J. C., 119
Afghanistan, 33
Agincourt, battle of, 84
Albemarle, William de Fortibus, Earl of, 59
Alfonzo, Prince, 64
Almenara, battle of, 34
Ambulatory, north, 105
south, 62
André, Major, 36
Andrew, St., Chapel of, 45, 109
Andrews, St., Archbishop of, 53
Angelo, Michael, 94
Anne, Queen, 61, 88, 96, 112
grave, and wax effigy, 101
Anne of Bohemia, 68, 72, 81, 82
Anne of Cleves, 61
Anne of Denmark, 94
Anne, St., 105
Anne's Gate, Queen, 10
Argyll, Duchess of, 7
Armada, Spanish, 136
Arnold, Matthew, 28
Arnold, Dr. Samuel, 118
Arnold, Dr. Thomas, 28
Ashburnham House, 134
Atterbury, Dean, 14, 23, 50, 55
Aveline, Countess of Lancaster, 59
Bacon, John, sculptor, 114
Balfe, Michael, 118
Barnet, battle of, 66
Barton Street, 45
Barry, Sir Charles, 32
Barry, Mrs., 45
Barry, Spranger, 124
Beaufort family, 88
Becket, Archbishop Thomas à, 57
Belfry, 23
Benedict, St., Chapel of, 52, 62
Bennett, Sir W. Sterndale, 118
Benson, auditor, 50
Beranger, Raymond de, Count of Provence, 41
Bermondsey convent, 129
Betterton, Thomas, 124
Bill, Dean, 62
Blackfriars, 77
Blaise, St., Chapel of, 129, 131
Blanche of the Tower, 66
Blenheim, battle of, 96
Blore, 56
Blow, Dr., 118
Boehm, sculptor, 94
Boer War, 123
Bohemia, arms of, 82
King of, 82
Bohun, family of de, 87
Booth, Barton, 44
Bosworth, battle of, 89
Bourchier, Sir Humphrey, 66
Bracegirdle, Mrs., 124
Bradshaw, John, regicide, 95, 139
Bray, Sir Reginald, 92
Brazilian Navy, 34
Brigham, Nicholas, 51
Bringfield, Colonel, 96
Brocas, Sir Bernard, 36
Brock, sculptor, 111
Browning, Robert, 52
Brunel, Isamberd, 120
Buckingham, Countess of, 85
Buckingham, Duke and Duchess of, 97
Buckland, Dean, 120
Burgundy, 133
Burleigh, Lord, 67
Burney, Dr., 118
Burney, Fanny, Madame d'Arblay, 118
Burns, Robert, 48
Buxton, Sir T. Fowell, 117
Byrcheston, Abbot, 122
Cabul, 33
Calcutta, 116
Campbell, Sir Colin, Lord Clyde, 32
Campbell, Thomas, 48
Canning, Earl, 113
Canning, George, 113
Canning, Stratford, Viscount de Redcliffe, 113
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 57, 62
Cathedral, 68
Carnatic, 117
Caroline, Queen, 98
Casaubon, Isaac, 43
Castlereagh, Viscount, 113
Catherine of Braganza, Queen, 36
Catherine, Princess, 63
Catherine, St., 63
Chapel of, 134
Cavendish, William, first Duke of Newcastle, 112
Caxton, William, 121
Cecil, Anne, Countess of Oxford, 67
Cecil, Mildred, Lady Burleigh, 67
Cecil, Sir Robert, Earl of Salisbury, 67
Cecil, Robert, Marquess of Salisbury, 68, 112
Cecil, William, Lord Burleigh, 67
Chamberlain, Dr., 98
Chandernagore, 116
Chapter House, 16, 61, 124-130
crypt, 130, 133
library, 13, 131, 133
Charing Cross, 77
Charles I., King, 13, 85, 97, 112, 137
Charles II., King, 36, 38, 88, 95, 97, 99, 101, 102, 104
Charles IV., Emperor, 82
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 48, 49, 51, 52, 85
Chilian Navy, 34
Choir, 23, 24
boys, 134
north aisle, 118
south aisle, 37
screen, 25
Cibber, Mrs., 124
Claypole, Elizabeth, Lady, 96
Clayton and Bell, 128
Clive, Lord, 116
Cloisters, 26, 54, 121, 122, 123, 134, 135
Little, 133
Cobden, Richard, 115
Cochrane, Thomas, Earl of Dundonald, 34
Coleridge, S. T., 48
Colt, Maximilian, sculptor, 104
Commonwealth, 95, 107, 133, 139
Congreve, William, 40
Coote, Sir Eyre, 116
Coromandel, 116
Coronation, 7
chairs, 72, 79, 95, 106
service, 129, 133
Coverley, Sir Roger de, 102
Cowley, Abraham, 52
Cowley Street, 45
Cowper, William, 110
Crawford, Ann, 124
Crecy, battle of, 82
Creed, Major, 96
Crimean War, 33
Croft, Dr., 118
Cromwell, Oliver, 8, 79, 95, 96
Crull, 15
Crusaders, 60
Darnley, Henry Stuart, Earl of, 98
Daubeney, Sir Giles and Lady, 85
Dean, 22, 135, 136, 139
and Chapter, 13, 28, 50, 125
Dean's Yard, 43, 123, 134, 140
Little, 134
Deanery, 23, 27, 136, 139, 140
Delavel family, 85
Derby, Earl of, 89
Dickens, Charles, 46
Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield, 111
Doomsday Book, 126
Dorset, Anne, Countess of, 49
Dunk, G. Montagu, Earl of Halifax, 102